Reuters/Bobby Yip The world’s most valuable fintech could turn out to be one of the most valuable financial companies in the world. Ant Group, the upstart that was spun out of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said today (July 20) that it will list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and on China’s Science and Technology Innovation Board, dubbed the STAR market and seen as the country’s answer to the Nasdaq. The company did not reveal the timeframe or the size of the listings, but said the IPOs...

More Varo Money is poised to become a full-fledged bank, making it the first of a new wave of fintech upstarts to win that approval in the US. The company’s long and expensive journey through a thick barrier of regulation is a reason why America’s banks have repelled the tech disruption sweeping through other industries. The five-year-old mobile bank got approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to receive deposit insurance, according to a statement yesterday. That brings...

Reuters/Brendan McDermid/File Photo - TM3EC6S0PI901 David Ellison, a money manager for financial company stocks, says LendingClub’s acquisition of a regulated bank is a good move for the fintech. But the 36-year veteran says he’s not ready to invest in the so-called marketplace lender. “I wouldn’t own the stock,” said Ellison of Hennessy Funds, which oversees $4.8 billion in assets. LendingClub’s purchase of Radius Bank for $185 million is likely to add revenue and provide stability. But...

Reuters/Toru Hanai SoftBank’s mega-investments made a splash in markets around the world last year, including in the UK’s burgeoning fintech sector: The Japanese company’s $100 billion Vision Fund led two deals that accounted for a quarter of the capital raised by the country’s financial startups. SoftBank’s outsize transactions in tech companies have raised questions about valuations and whether some firms in its portfolio have too much money. The Vision Fund invested $800 million in...

Goldman Sachs is investing in a startup that’s designed to help people get better rates on their savings. It couldn’t come at a better or worse time, depending on how you look at it. The Wall Street bank invested €25 million ($28 million) in Raisin, a Berlin-based fintech firm that helps European savers switch their money into higher-yielding savings accounts. The six-year-old company declined to disclose its valuation. Goldman’s bet on the startup comes amid signs of slowing global economic...